Tales of a Musical Journey Christmas Collection by Adrienne Fero McKinney

The Tales of a Musical Journey Christmas Collection was written by Adrienne Fero McKinney to correlate with the original piano method books by Irina Gorin. These ten short pieces are graded from the easiest to most difficult. Each piece is printed on a large staff for ease of reading by the youngest piano students. The printed notes vary from five (bass G, A, & B and treble C & D) in the first piece, to nine (bass G through treble A) in the last piece. Use of fingers 1 and 5 is avoided as much as possible, and the first three pieces use fingers 2, 3 and 4 only. The next two pieces add finger 1, but only in one hand. In order to allow for melodies with a wider note range, several pieces have very small hand shifts indicated.  Eighth notes are introduced in the 8th and 9th pieces and maybe taught by rote to students who haven’t yet progressed to the middle of Book 2 of Tales of a Musical Journey. Each piece also features a teacher accompaniment directly beneath the student solo, including a two-bar introduction. In most pieces, the student will play one or two octaves higher than written.

Jingle Bells

We Three Kings

O Come, All Ye Faithful

Deck the Halls

Away in a Manger

Good King Wenceslas

Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella!

Oh Christmas Tree

Up On the Housetop

O Little Town of Bethlehem